How 'bout you Jimmie, you an oak man?

01/31/2007

New Jersey High School To Test Urine For Alcohol.

Ahhh, the nanny state at work:

The test, which will be given randomly to students at Pequannock Township High School, can detect whether alcohol was consumed up to 80 hours earlier. The legal drinking age in the United States is 21.

Other districts already use the test. Middletown began using it last spring for students suspected of using drugs and alcohol. This month, the district expanded it to include a random pool of about 1,800 students.

Pequannock Superintendent Larrie Reynolds said the policy approved last week should be a deterrent to students who feel peer pressure to drink.

Under the program, students who test positive will not be kicked off teams or barred from extracurricular activities, Reynolds said. Instead, they will receive counseling — and their parents will be notified.

Remember-- the Constitution is going to be torn to shreds if your librarian suspects Al Qaeda is checking out books on fertilizer bombs, but our civil liberties are quite safe as long as we all care about "the children."

OpinionJournal's James Taranto picked up on this quote in the story:

Critics have said the testing does not work and invades students' privacy.

"Medical care and treatment are issues between parents and children," said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

Taranto not-so-sarcastically asks: "Does that include contraception and abortion?"